Funviralpark A large and deadly winter storm has brought whiteout blizzards, stinging winds and frigid temperatures well below average to much of the United States, wreaking havoc on Christmas weekend travel, causing hundreds of thousands of Authorities have warned of a potentially life-threatening situation where people lose power.
The National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center says it will be “25 to 35 degrees cooler than average east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachian Mountains” over the weekend.
The weather agency has warned of dangerously cold winds blowing across the central and eastern United States, and severe weather “will create a potentially life-threatening hazard for stranded travelers, individuals working outdoors, livestock and pets.” said.
The NWS also forecasts lake-effect snow downwind from the Great Lakes and “intense mixed precipitation impacting the Pacific Northwest and Northern Highlands” over the weekend.
At least six people were reportedly killed in vehicle crashes, and at least four were killed in a large pile-up on a Turnpike, Ohio involving about 50 vehicles.
The storm, which stretches from the Great Lakes to Texas to the Northwest to New England, brought a winter weather advisory or warning to about 60% of the U.S. population, or more than 200 million people, on Friday.
Arctic blasts have brought conditions to areas in the South that have not been seen for a quarter of a century.Temperatures hit below freezing in Nashville on Friday first time since 1996.
According to PowerOutage.com, at least 1 million customers nationwide are still experiencing power outages.
WPLN’s Blake Farmer reported that parts of the South experienced wind chills of -20 degrees Celsius as the front hit, and gusts of wind cut power to thousands of homes in Tennessee and Kentucky. Emergency responders have asked people in the area to stay home as much as possible.
Meanwhile, WPLN’s Paige Pfleger reported that plummeting temperatures are putting pressure on power grids unaccustomed to the cold, and Tennessee Valley officials have called on local power companies to cut power use. The customer experiences a 10 minute outage every few hours until the power load stabilizes.
Scott Aaronson, Edison’s vice president of security and preparedness, said restoring power in such weather is a significant challenge.
“Access to these areas can be very difficult, with downed power lines, fallen trees, and very icy roads. You can’t drive up,” says Aaronson. “And those combinations limit the crew’s ability to get out there and restore power.”
In New Jersey, heavy rains and high winds brought down power lines and sent floodwaters as high as nine feet along the coast. Inland areas along the Hudson River were also flooded.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul urged residents to wait until Sunday to travel as road conditions remain dangerous until Saturday.
“This is a life-threatening and dangerous event,” Hochul said at a press conference in Albany Friday afternoon. Please do not move until
The storm wreaked havoc on vacationers across the United States, with nearly 1,500 flights canceled by Saturday morning, according to FlightAware. Following the delay.
FlightAware’s Kathleen Bangs said Friday that the average delay is 68 minutes and that delays are stranded passengers.
“So, unfortunately, everyone with connecting flights will be greatly affected, and with these lengthy delays, we will see many people miss their connecting flights.” Mr Bangs said.
This report used reports from Bruce Konviser, Paige Pfleger and Blake Farmer of WPLN, Mary Louise Kelly and David Schaper of NPR, and AP.
Copyright 2022 NPR. For more information, please visit https://www.npr.org.
